The Ocean Never Sleeps

Nootka IV- Wild caught Orca who was bought by Seaworld as a breeding machine 

“As for Nootka IV, she had been capricious and volatile since the day she arrived in Orlando. She was known to lunge ferociously from the pool at people standing near the deck. The main job for Nootka, who was banned from water work and not used in shows because of her unstable past, was getting pregnant.

Nootka got to work right away. She arrived in Orlando in January of 1993. By February, Tilikum had impregnated her once again (their first calf, a male, was born while Nootka was still at SeaLand, but only survived a month).

On August 18, 1994, Nootka went into labor. The calf arrived dead.

 The stillbirth took its toll on Nootka’s health, and she struggled to recover. Less than a month later, she appeared sluggish in the water and her condition began to worsen. Vets prepared the forty-six-hundred-pound female for surgery, but she died during pre-op examination. SeaWorld VP and curator Frank Murru said blood samples showed some type of infection. He was not sure if the animal’s death was related to the stillbirth.

A columnist for the Boca Raton Beacon, noting Nootka’s loss of two calves in a row, asked if SeaWorld was perhaps “overlooking the complications of a broken heart.” Nootka IV was approximately thirteen years old.”

I don’t remember them ever having to close the stadium while I was there. This all seems very suspicious tbh

I don’t remember them ever having to close the stadium while I was there. This all seems very suspicious tbh

Sky News Interviews JV Regarding the Orca that Mimics Humans

I would point to this passage of the paper: “Elucidating the precise mechanism of social learning involved is difficult, however, particularly for acoustic communication in wild populations. Although killer whales are capable of learning novel motor actions from conspecifics through imitation [25], the experimental evidence for vocal production learning is still scarce in this species. There are reports of killer whales in the field and in captive settings suggesting that they can copy novel calls from conspecifics [26,27], and even from heterospecifics such as bottlenose dolphins [28] or sea lions [24]. One Icelandic female was found to match novel calls from a Northern Resident female with whom she had been housed together for several years [26]. Two juvenile killer whales, separated from their natal pods, were observed to mimic the barks of sea lions in a field study [24]. Crance et al. [27] and Musser et al. [28] took advantage of two unplanned cross-socializing experimental situations to show that two juvenile males learned novel calls from an unrelated but socially close adult male, and three individuals learned novel whistles from a dolphin, respectively. 

 However, as suggestive as these reports are, the lack of experimental controls curtails the interpretation about the underlying acquisition mechanisms. Experimental data are needed to ascertain whether vocal learning is a plausible mechanism underlying the complexity of vocal traditions in wild killer whales. However, to the best of our knowledge, not even anecdotal reports exist about killer whales spontaneously mimicking human speech similar to those reported in some birds (e.g. parrots [29], mynahs [30]) and mammals (elephants [31], seals [32], belugas [14]). “ 

Source

The paper states “ Our results lend support to the hypothesis that the vocal variants observed in natural populations of this species can be socially learned by imitation. The capacity for vocal imitation shown in this study may scaffold the natural vocal traditions of killer whales in the wild.” so clearly the authors believe that this research can be applied to wild populations.

@jmventre​ Luna is an example of an observation of perceived mimicking not under experimental controls, and not mimicking of human speech - which is the topic of this study. In the UK we have the concept of “due impartiality and due accuracy” in our TV news which is regulated by Ofcom [link] (sadly this does not extend to printed news, but I digress). What the reporter is doing in the interview, is pushing you to explain your standpoint and asking you to explain why you believe these things and she presents the opposing view in order to further the discussion. I would consider that normal and fair in an interview in order to present both sides of the story to meet the impartiality requirement. 

She does not really repeat the same question, her questions are, per the video you posted: 

What is your reaction initial to the news...

Do you think there’s any case for conducting research like this in captivity, so that we learn more about the species and can help protect them in the wild?

In terms of us not learning anything new, it is being pushed as something .. the first time we’ve seen this, can you explain why that is? (to which you only respond with information about different species I would add)

Are saying there’s never a case, never a justification for an animal like this to be in captivity for research purposes?

What some of the marine mammal experts we’ve spoken to today have said ‘while captivity is not ideal... if orcas are in captivity then maybe its better that we do use them for research purposes’

Do you think there’s a danger then, that this is a relationship you would frown upon ... theme parks like ... Marineland working with scientists on research, is that a fraught relationship?

One of the researchers we did speak to ... one of the things that has taught ... showed them possibly is that they have passed their dialects on from one generation to another or that it might give them some insight into that. Which I guess I something that they were learn, and what they hope to look at next is memory, so overall ... it educates us in one sense ... a bt more about the species. Is that something you agree with?

Now, there could be a case for her questions being less open than than would be ideal but from my perspective she isn’t being particularly hostile. Though admittedly I have not seen the edited version of the interview. 

What questions do you think she should have asked you?

Speaking of the peer reviewed pieces you’ve written, I only papers I could find under your name were:

Captive killer whale (Orcinus orca) survival (2015)

Orca (Orcinus orca) captivity and vulnerability to mosquito-transmitted viruses (2012)

I couldn’t find the other two unfortunately, perhaps you could provide titles and the names of the journals they were published in? You claim that the study by Abramson et al. does not “help wild killer whales”, but I would argue that the two papers you have authored above do nothing to help wild killer whale populations either, so they seem immaterial to this particular discussion.

And you response does not answer my initial question:  How is this not science? Do you have issues with the method that led you to come to that conclusion?

Sky News Interviews JV Regarding the Orca that Mimics Humans

I would point to this passage of the paper: “Elucidating the precise mechanism of social learning involved is difficult, however, particularly for acoustic communication in wild populations. Although killer whales are capable of learning novel motor actions from conspecifics through imitation [25], the experimental evidence for vocal production learning is still scarce in this species. There are reports of killer whales in the field and in captive settings suggesting that they can copy novel calls from conspecifics [26,27], and even from heterospecifics such as bottlenose dolphins [28] or sea lions [24]. One Icelandic female was found to match novel calls from a Northern Resident female with whom she had been housed together for several years [26]. Two juvenile killer whales, separated from their natal pods, were observed to mimic the barks of sea lions in a field study [24]. Crance et al. [27] and Musser et al. [28] took advantage of two unplanned cross-socializing experimental situations to show that two juvenile males learned novel calls from an unrelated but socially close adult male, and three individuals learned novel whistles from a dolphin, respectively. 

 However, as suggestive as these reports are, the lack of experimental controls curtails the interpretation about the underlying acquisition mechanisms. Experimental data are needed to ascertain whether vocal learning is a plausible mechanism underlying the complexity of vocal traditions in wild killer whales. However, to the best of our knowledge, not even anecdotal reports exist about killer whales spontaneously mimicking human speech similar to those reported in some birds (e.g. parrots [29], mynahs [30]) and mammals (elephants [31], seals [32], belugas [14]). “ 

Source

The paper states “ Our results lend support to the hypothesis that the vocal variants observed in natural populations of this species can be socially learned by imitation. The capacity for vocal imitation shown in this study may scaffold the natural vocal traditions of killer whales in the wild.” so clearly the authors believe that this research can be applied to wild populations.

 Gorgeous